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Anorak News | Drop The Dead Possum: Things Dropped on New Year’s Eve

Drop The Dead Possum: Things Dropped on New Year’s Eve

by | 2nd, January 2014

HOW did you know when 2014 had arrived? What singled the change? Was it a text from your mum? A kiss from a waiter? Or were you stood in Kennett Square in Chester County, Pennsylvania, waiting for the eight feet wide and 7½ feet tall illuminated mushroom to drop from a crane at the stroke of midnight?

Kennett Square mushroom lights

 

 

Or maybe you were in downtown Boise, Idaho, checking the movements of a lit 16-foot long potato?

Boise potato drop

 

New York City, of course, has it’s big ball. The New Year’s Eve ball sits atop the 1 Times Square building – the 11,875-pound geodesic sphere covered in 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles descends a 130-foot pole to mark the stroke of midnight.

PA-18570859

 

But the things we really enjoy dropping are ex-living things:

A chicken – Gainesville, Georgia: The dropping of “Chuck the Chicken” was established in 2009 to benefit the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia.

A live chicken? No. Local bigwig Mabel Hudson says, “We couldn’t do a live one, we would have had PETA out here.”

A possum – Tallapoosa, Georgia: On odd years, the city drops a possum. “It kind of started out as a joke,” an event organizer explained. “But now it’s grown to one of the biggest events we have.”

A stuffed muskrat wearing a top hat and bow tie – Princess Anne, Maryland: The creature is called Marshall P. Muskrat.

A dead carp – Pairie du Chien, Wisconsin: A fish, caught by local fishers and weighing between 25 and 30 pounds, is lowered to celebrate the area’s fishing industry. The carp, nicknamed “Lucky,” is lowered onto a throne. It is then buried. At its burial site, a tree planted, along with a commemorative plaque listing the carp’s name and death year.

A stuffed goat – Falmouth, Pennsylvania.

Then everyone drops down dead drunk…



Posted: 2nd, January 2014 | In: Reviews, Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink